The present invention relates to a medical treatment apparatus that supports medical treatment actions to an affected area of a patient.
In conventional medical treatment, particularly, conventional surgical treatment, after conducting a diagnosis with the aid of information obtained beforehand, in particular, image information obtained by an image measuring apparatus, a medical treatment plan was formed on the basis of results of the diagnosis and medical treatment was performed according to the plan.
On the other hand, in recent years, operators have come to use an ultrasonic scanner, a radioscopic apparatus, etc. as measuring instruments during surgical operations. An example of technique for performing the medical treatment of patients and support of such medical treatment with the aid of information from such measuring instruments is described in JP-A-8-280710. In this conventional technique, an apparatus for displaying information obtained beforehand from a measuring instrument as described above to operators who perform medical treatment is provided.
The above ultrasonic scanner can perform only local measurement and it was difficult to grasp a general structure. Further, there were cases where tomographic images from an arbitrary direction as in MRI and CT could not be taken and hence images in the direction in which an operator wanted to observe them could not be obtained. On the other hand, the radioscopic apparatus was not used to repeatedly take images because the problem of irradiation with radiant rays cannot be neglected.
In the above conventional technique, therefore, the external structure and internal structure of a patient or an affected area are presented in real time, whereas a medical treatment plan is not modified or updated.
For this reason, a medical treatment plan is not sequentially generated, modified or updated with the aid of such image information, and instead an operator performed an surgical operation by forming a judgment in real time during the surgical operation.
However, during actual medical treatment and, in particular, during surgical treatment (hereinafter referred to as an operation or a surgical operation), it is not seldom that the condition of a patient or an affected area undergoes an unexpected change, such as deformation, as the medical treatment proceeds and, therefore, there were cases where it was not necessarily the best to perform an operation according to a plan formed beforehand or an operation could not be performed as planned. It is not difficult to say that in the conventional technique, a change in the condition of a patient or an affected area during an operation was responded to in the best manner like this, and it was not taken into consideration that the lack of this capacity of the conventional technique to respond to a change in the condition of a patient or an affected area during an operation prevents an improvement in operation performance.
Furthermore, trends for the past several years include trying out of a method of calculating a direction of approach in a stereotactic neurosurgency with the aid of an image measuring instrument capable of taking tomographic images near an affected area. However, there are only a few clinical examples and it cannot be said that this method has been put to practical use. Even if this method is carried out by means of an MRI and X-ray CT, instructions based on results of a calculation exceeds the limits of human manual techniques because of the complexity of a path through an object point of operation or because of the fineness (resolution) of work and for other reasons, and it is not seldom that this method may not be implemented.
The complexity of a path can be improved by increasing the size of an incision, i.e., a cut-open portion of a patient. However, an increase in the size of the incision increases the burden on the patient during and after the operation and, therefore, it is undesirable to increase the size of the incision unnecessarily. In medical treatment, it is desirable that the incision be as small as possible in order to minimize damage to the patient and that an operation be performed in a narrow space by looking at movements of the internal organs by means of surgical instruments and also, in many cases, an endscope inserted from the small incision.
On the other hand, an operator must use images from an endscope from which it is difficult to get to know a general structure of the affected area including its surrounding area and is also required to carry out fine and well-done operating manipulation on the object which continues to change in real time while manipulating surgical instruments in a space where movements are limited, with the result that it becomes more and more difficult to exactly update and modify a medical treatment plan during an operation. This point was not taken into consideration in the above conventional technique.
Further, in some portions to be operated, if the dynamic behavior and functions of an organ in question can be measured in the period from incision to immediately before and after the performance of an operation for actual medical treatment, the wound can be prevented from being closed with insufficient medical care, with the result that the performance of the operation is remarkably improved. In the medical treatment of heart disease, for example, if, before and after bypassing, valve replacement, etc., an operator can get to know the patency condition of bypassed blood vessels and the recovery condition of the heart functions by valve replacement, there are many advantages including lowering the probability of a re-operation.
Conventionally, in such operation of heart disease, information on the internal condition of an affected area and patient has been collected through the use of an ultrasonic scanner. Although this measure enables information on dynamic behavior, such as the condition of blood currents and pulses, to be obtained, it cannot grasp a general structure. In some cases, therefore, obtained information is insufficient for medical treatment.
An object of the invention is to provide a medical treatment apparatus capable of performing more exact medical treatment by presenting a medical treatment plan which is modified during medical treatment to an operator who performs the operation and uses this medical treatment apparatus.
In order to achieve the above object, there is provided in the invention a medical treatment apparatus comprising detection means for detecting the condition of a human body to be treated, medical treatment means for treating the human body, and display means for displaying results of computing with the aid of computing means for computing a plan for the medical treatment on the basis of detection results from the detection means.